The fourteenth republic - watching Scotland and ever changing DfE guidelines

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

If you are fed up with cakes and biscuits there is now a cheeseboard on offer

If you come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom

I am trying to explain the Scottish system on a GCSE thread mistress. It's hard going...

Tried explaining to DH, too, but he glazed over...

I grew up under the O level system so I thought I understood both, but so much has changed! (where did lower and upper sixth go, for a start? )

But we still say sixth form. Because that makes sense....

I did O grades, highers and CSYS. My application forms are full of explanatory footnotes...

I did a mixture of O levels and GCSEs because it was the lead-in year for the latter.
I had terrible trouble with Maths all the way through school. Never got above a D, but got in Uni because I had As in two sciences. A few years ago I thought it was ridiculous I didn’t have the required standard so I did the Level 2 qual from a local Uni. Got an excellent Pass, wish I’d done the GCSE after all!
I think it is down to the level you are taught at. My secondary streamed but in one ‘block’. Because I was top set Eng/Hist etc I was also top set Maths and I just couldn’t cope. The Deputy Head ended up giving me extra tuition in 6th form for resits but I still floundered at a D.

So when I see the puzzled looks in intervention groups I can pick up on them and gently work out what the block is in the topic. Not everyone acts up if they find something difficult, most just go very, very quiet and try and shrink into the background. I know I did!

And they almost never mention transport popping bubbles or at most say "some students" may mix on buses.

It's a massive percentage in rural areas (and towns and cities too because of parental choice so children are busing, training or tubing all over the place!)

That Children's Commissioner is a very dim woman.

We had a consultation via the school (as a parent) about what form of transport our dc were going to take in Sept, so the Council can try to work out what to do. About 5 school buses from different areas, one shared with another school. Plus a lot use public transport.
It’s an area with a choice of schools - parents opt out of their nearest school for those a few miles away.

My DS needs to pay for the bus to his catchment sixth form (controversial since the main part of the school is walking distance) and we have had no communication at all about this. I smell a shambles ahead.

Ive joined the Boycott unsafe school opening fb group.
4.5k on there. How many are on U4T?

I know the thread has moved on since the mention of breaks and staff toilets (we have one disabled/staff toilet in our block of 28 classrooms).

I've just looked at my timetable again with the actual timings for staggered breaks and there are days I'm teaching three hours back to back (early break, late lunch).

I know other schools have staggered breaks anyway, and actually I'll be fine apart from 2 days a month where I might have to double up sanpro and pray. Assuming I can get in the one toilet at early break (duties aren't out yet but I'm sure they won't expect me to do that one!)

But do the rest of you manage three hour blocks as a normal thing? Surely some teachers need more frequent access than that?

We have staggered lunch breaks so I often teach three hour blocks if I'm on late lunch. I nip to the toilet in the lesson changeover if I need to.

I don’t drink caffeinated drinks at school - could not make it to lunchtime if I had a cup of tea at breaktime like so many do!

I’ve also bombed to the toilets during changeover too. We’ve got a big site and the kids can take ages to get to the next lesson so although the timetable is technically back-to-back, if you leave with the kids you’re ok.

Not sure how that’s going to work now that the kids are staying put and the teachers are moving. I guess if I’m going to be late to the next lesson anyway, a quick loo stop in an emergency will have to do.

I'm worried. We only have 2 female staff toilets for some unknown reason in the whole school and they are in the same room with just cubicles. With a new one in one out policy I cannot see how all the staff in our large secondary will manage, especially with the KS3 kids staying put and extra duties to manage the zones.

Thanks guys, I guess I'll just have to make a dash for it if I have to. Our guidance (pupils are moving not us) is that we should be in and that they should not have to queue unless unavoidable.

I generally have a bladder of steel if I don't drink too much water, but tmi there are times I may need to go.

I don't like to generalise but I've got three youngish male teachers on my bit of corridor, so at least it's likely if my class have to queue they'll be alone and not mixing bubbles as such.

Might have to re-train the bladder for the next few week after so much all hours access to the loo (and drinking a healthy amount of fluids for once!)

I just hope I don't synchronise with one of the 20+ other teachers that may also need that loo at that time.

I couldn't do an hour in some cases when pregnant! Head was sympathetic and I was allowed to run out for a wee, I'd often grab people from the corridor to stand in the door for 2 mins.

I have no idea what to expect from Sept.

Have just heard (from my osteopath whose sister can no longer teach skiing in her gap year!) that in Australia they employed school sanitisers with the specific job of cleaning toilets after each child used them. Each child!!

I wonder who funded those jobs.

To be fair, measures such as that obviously have not meant they have avoided second lockdowns.

And I would have thought the risk from aerosoliation of the virus to those sanitisers was pretty high, wonder what PPE they were given....

I dash to the loo in lesson changeover at least once a day, and a couple of times a week I need to leave a class to work independently for a couple of minutes while I "make a quick phone call from the office" (otherwise known as dash to the loo). One of the main symptoms of diabetes is urinating more frequently, so for the few months before I was diagnosed and the few months after diagnosis when I was building up the medication (which brought about a different toileting issue ) I needed to go A LOT. I can now, very occasionally, make it through to lunchtime before I need to go, but that's quite rare, even now my sugars are more under control. I would drink less, but I've been told not to because that damages the kidneys and diabetes already increases the risk of kidney damage. Health and teaching don't always go hand in hand, but I'm prioritising my health so continuing to drink plenty and go to the loo when I need to. Luckily, behaviour is pretty good in my school, so kids are allowed into classrooms unsupervised, and my room is very close to a staff loo (a single, unisex toilet shared with staff from 3 blocks).

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/05/schools-reopening-in-england-risks-sharp-rise-in-covid-cases-says-expert

See the new very sensible schools post (and I do wish the government which just tell people what they should DO!) attracted the pre rehearsed T4U post within about 12 posts.

It hit virtually every square on my Bingo card and added some new ones, such as
Coronavirus is here to stay... and we need to get used to that

Covid is here to stay is an old one making a return I think.

It’s what pushed my MH over the edge at work.

Yes, and one would help with the wonders of modern epidemiology it isn't!

It may well be here to stay for a good while so we need to adapt.
Why am I suddenly surrounded by so many childish whingers who can’t accept that? A country like the Uk can’t manage to work out how to deliver quality education in alternative ways for a bit? Fuck me, when did we get so pathetic?

That is a beautifully sensible thread isn't it?!

I'm in recovery after daring to post a question on AIBU? Bear pit, oh yes!!

I knew the topic might be controversial, and I seem to have worded my title badly, but didn't realise I'd be cut down for daring to ask a question that others might know the answer to.... 🧐 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s the sort of thread where you think “do people really need this spelling out for them?” and then 10 replies in you’ve realised that unfortunately a large proportion of people do need it copying out, laminating and stapling to their forehead so their thick mates can read it too 🤦‍♀️